Chapter 4 – Again

There is another letter of invitation came in to the House of Shiratoe and the House of Matoba clan.

"Ojou-sama," Wakame said to Saya, who is lounging at the nearby window ledge with cushions piled up beside her. The servant handed her a golden letter, and Saya opens it and reads the content.

"Hmm…" she sighed. "There is another meeting coming up. I'm gonna go…"

"You're going to the meeting, Saya?" Haru said, coming into Saya's room quietly. Saya balked at the sight of her brother.

"Onii-sama!" Saya called, and hides the letter.

"Don't fret," Haru said to her. "I've already known you're the type to sneak out from home and go to the meeting on behalf of me. You can't hide the fact that you are the rightful head of the family from everyone forever and ask me to be your stand in, Saya…"

"I know, Onii-sama…" Saya said sadly. "But they won't believe I am the head. I mean, look at me! I'm so young!"

"And full of power and passion, my darling," Haru said to her, sitting by the window ledge by her side and held her hand. "Saya, dear, you are powerful. You are the legend, and you shall rise and be the head of the family regardless you want it or not. Your Onii-sama does not have your power, not even an ounce of it. Be a good girl, and be safe… we shall all be waiting for you to come back home with Seiji-kun, alright?"

"Why Seiji-kun!" Saya exclaims, blushing from the roots of her hair and to her ears. Her blush escalated to the degree that it has spread to her neckline, and she looks like a red tomato.

Haru laughed.

"Well, I can see that you like that boy very much, Saya. Why not bring him around and confess to him?"

"No!" Saya said to him defiantly. "I want him to do the honor first… where else would you find a girl who would willingly confess to a guy she likes?"

"Well, high school girls!" Haru said to her with a wide smile. Saya made a face at him and Haru laughs. "They used to do that confession thing with a love letter and some chocolate for the boys they like!"

"Those only happen in shoujo manga, Onii-sama!" Saya barked, and ran out from her room. Haru laughs at her and stood up to go back to his apothecary.

That day, Saya is dressed to fit her status by her servants. Haru had given explicit instruction for the servants to dress her beautifully as the Ojou-sama of the Shiratoe clan.

Despite the many displays of kimonos, Haru had ordered the servants to dress her in the original flowing Chinese ancient gowns that Onmyoujis used to wear. It is white in color, and her hair is decorated with chrysanthemum flowers and golden chrysanthemum hair pins, the emblem of the Shiratoe clan. Her feet are delicately put on with embroidered silk shoes, lily patterns to be exact, and it is one of the purest symbols that their house uses.

"Onii-sama," Saya calls her brother after she came out from her room.

"Now, you look like an Onmyouji," Haru said to his sister, smiling widely at her and took her hand, guiding her to the carriage that would take her to the meeting.

"Why a carriage, Onii-sama?" she asks him innocently, cocking her head to the sides. The golden chrysanthemum with the trailing golden ornament follows her movement, and twinkles brightly in the sun.

"We wouldn't want to let them know that our Ojou-sama is walking to the meeting on her own two feet now, wouldn't we?" Haru said to her, and guides her into the carriage. He closes the blinds behind her and smiles at her, and wave's goodbye to her.

"Be safe, and be good, Saya," Haru said to her, and Saya nods her head.

Upon arriving, Saya is greeted with a few Ayakashi and Yokais. They are dressed expensively, and she knew they are high class Yokais. But something seems amiss here, and she kept her guards up.

"Greetings, Ichi no Hime-sama," they all bows to her and calls her by her title. She nods her head at them and walks in, not bothering to ask them to rise up.

She is lead to the inner halls, wherein the rest of the Exorcists are in there already. Coincidently, she is sat beside Matoba Seiji himself.

"You look absolutely ravishing, I must say," Seiji said to her with a crooked smile. Saya smirks back to him.

"I do hope you're not having another nightmare because of the curse of your left eye now, Seiji-kun," she said to him, and he kept quiet.

The meeting is boring, as per usual. Nothing is out of the ordinary, and nothing is amiss. The old man kept on preaching things like Ayakashi is booming in one area and then the other area has no more powerful ayakashi.

Saya yawned.

"It is unsightly to yawn like that, Ichi no Hime-sama," Seiji said to her from beside, and she clicked her tongue at him.

"My name is Saya. You are not some lowly servant to call me Ichi no Hime. Just Saya would be enough, Seiji-kun," she said to him, and smirked at the corner of her mouth.

Seiji loves everything about her. It was that everything about her fascinates him so much he couldn't stop looking at her. He just wanted to reach out and touch her hand, to feel her there, real and sublime beside him. And when she smiles at him, it was like a blind man looking up at the sun for the first time.

The meeting is dismissed after 2 hours of boring talks and documentations. Everyone rushes out to the great hall to have some refreshment prepared there. And there, they met someone else…

"Truly, I can't tell the difference between a human and an ayakashi…" Saya told Seiji, and Seiji laughs out loud.

"Are you serious!?" Seiji said, laughing and holding onto his stomach.

"Stop laughing, I'm serious!" Saya said, slapping on his arm in the process and smiles herself.

"All you had to do is feel the temperature around them," Seiji said after he stopped laughing, holding onto her wrist due to the crowd and pulls her to the table where food is overflowing. He held out a drink to her, and she accepted it. "An ayakashi and yokai is colder than a human's normal temperature. You'll know it when you feel it."

"Is that Reiko-san? Natsume-Reiko?" one of the ayakashi said to his other ayakashi friend, and it caught the attention of Matoba Seiji and Saya.

"Reiko?" Saya said the name. "Did he just said Reiko?"

"I'm afraid so…" Seiji said to her, and begun to be cautious and scanned the crowd.

"Is that… Natori-san?" Saya said to herself, and smiles up at him.

"Natori-san!" Saya calls him, and leaves Seiji behind at the table.

"Ichi no Hime-sama!" Natori said, surprised with the appearance of Saya in the meeting. "I thought you weren't coming? And wow, you wore your onmyouji garbs!"

"My name is Saya, Natori-san. Sa-ya!" Saya said to him, and Natori laughs.

"Alright, Saya-hime," Natori said to her with a bow. "This is my friend, Natsume Takashi," Natori introduces Natsume to her, and Natsume gave her a low bow.

"I-Ichi no hime-sama… Dozo…" Natsume said awkwardly, not knowing how to salute her title.

"Just call me Saya, Natsume-kun," Saya said to him in a friendly tone. "Any friend of Natori-san is a friend of mine!"

"Natori-san," a lady wearing a spectacle came with her bodyguards and the sea of people and ayakashi parted ways to allow her to pass. "You said you'd bring a new acquaintance, so I came here to see him."

"Nanase-san!" Natori said happily, and holding his guard against her. Nanase is a dangerous exorcist, but her powers comes to less than level one when it compares to the Ichi no Hime.

"Ichi no Hime-sama," Nanase bows to her, and Saya nods her head coldly at her.

"You're an eyesore here, Nanase. Go away!" Saya said to her, and Nanase bows to her.

"I shall depart from your sight, Ichi no Hime sama, if you would allow me to talk to Natori-san for a while?" Nanase said to Saya, and the both of them have a staring contest until Natori decided to break the ice.

"Ah, allow me to introduce you. This is Natsume-kun, my friend, and this is Hiiragi, my new servant," Natori said to Nanase, and Nanase's eyes widens at the sound of Natsume's name.

"Natsume?" Nanase said to herself, and opens the blinds that cover Natsume's eyes. "Do you happen to know Reiko? Natsume Reiko?

"Y-you know my grandmother?" Natsume said to her.

"Grandmother? You are her grandson?" Nanase said to him, surprised with the revelation.

"Grandson?" Saya repeated the phrase. "You're Natsume Reiko's grandson?!"

"They said she is very beautiful and very powerful…" Nanase said to him, and palmed his face gently. "You don't have to fight by yourself anymore…"

"My Onii-sama knew Reiko-san," Saya told Natsume, and immediately, Natsume's head snapped to her direction. She smiles kindly at him.

"She used to come by our house when my Onii-sama is still young, and ate the desserts my mother made for all of us. She is sweet, and beautiful, or so told by my Onii-sama…" Saya said to him and smiles at him sweetly. "You should come by our house sometimes, and have the desserts that she used to have. In a way, you shall be living a life she never had the chance to live before…"

Natsume is stunned. Never before had someone asked about his grandmother like this. He thought that everyone had forgotten about his grandmother, and had moved on in their life. Turns out that there is someone who still remembers her, and for that, he is grateful.

At the least, his grandmother did not live a life in vain…

They went away after a while, and Saya continues to talk with Seiji. Seiji is very much interested with her techniques in vanquishing yokai and ayakashi.

"It's just something like a burden my family ancestor's gave me," Saya said to him. "You had no idea how hard I trained to reach this level. Since my Onii-sama is powerless, I am the next in line, and to keep my Onii-sama alive, I would have to do everything they told me to do."

"Keep him alive?" Seiji said to her, confused.

"Don't you know?" Saya said to him. "The first born would be killed if they are found to be powerless just so that their sealed powers would be granted to the next in line of the heir…"

A loud commotion sounded on the second floor, and someone screamed 'Ayakashi!'.

"Ayakashi!" Seiji said, and rushes up to the second floor.

Saya follows suit, and found that Natsume and Natori is in danger. Hiiragi, Natori's new servant, is in danger of getting eaten by the huge yokai, and Natsume had stood in front of her to protect her.

"Kekkai Jutsu!" Saya exclaims, and her fingers are raised to form a magical binding seal over the monster. Natsume is saved, and Saya held her ground on the monster with her Kekkai. "Nao ma san dan bo da nan! Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi dai, bari ya hatahata juqi ya sowaka. On abi rao sa lak tan! Nao ma san dan bo da nan!"

The monster escaped Saya's bindings and headed straight towards Natsume. The monster bit on Natsume's arm with the seal on it, and it gave Natsume a chance to hit the monster.

The Ayakashi flew through doors and doors of tatami rice paper doors and escapes.

"Oi, are you alright?" one of the exorcists ask him.

"I'm fine…" Natsume replies him, holding onto his arms. The spell that Hiiragi had written on him had saved his arm. "How is Hiiragi?"

"She's fine. Her wounds are shallow," Natori said to him, and in came Saya from the sides.

"Are you guys alright? Natsume-kun?" Saya asks frantically.

"We're fine…" Natori said to her.

"Sensei!" Natsume exclaims at the cat called Nyanko. In a moment, the Nyanko cat transforms into a huge white wolf.

"The Fire Wolf…" Saya exclaims at the sight of Nyanko in his transformed form. "Madarao!"

"What a huge servant, just who is that child to be able to control such a huge beast?" one of the lesser ayakashi said, and Saya overhears it.

"Natsume-kun…" Saya said to herself, watching as Natsume and Natori ran out of the mansion and out to catch the yokai.